23 April 1930. Qissa Khwani Bazar Massacre. Peshawar Qissa Khwani Saniha

 23 April 1930. Qissa Khwani Bazar Massacre. Peshawar Qissa Khwani Saniha

‏د شهادت تمغې دې کـــــورته يوسه

زما د هر پښتون  حساب دې اوشې

ما ژوند په سر لکه عذاب راوړی

ما هم په دار که چې ثواب دې اوشې

۲۳ اپریل د قیصه خوانی د شهیدانو ورځ په تړاو پښتون سټوډنټس کونسل خپلو شهیدانو او د ازادی مبارزینو ته د عقیدت پیرزوني وړاندي کوي.

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The massacre at the Qissa khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, British India" modern day Pakistan" on 23 April 1930 was one of the defining moments of the independence movement in British India. It was the first major confrontation between British troops and demonstrators in the city of Abdul Ghaffar Khan's non violent Khudai Khidmatgar "servants of God"movement against the British Indian government. Estimates at the time put the death toll from the shooting at between the official count at 20, and the figure of 400 dead put forth by Pakistani and Indian sources.The gunning down of unarmed people triggered protests across British India and catapulted the newly formed Khudai Khidmatgar movement into prominence.

After other Khudai Khidmatgar leaders were arrested, a large crowd of the group gathered at the Qissa Khwani bazaar. As British Indian troops moved into the bazaar, the crowd was loud and stones were thrown. A British Army dispatch rider was killed and his body burned. Two British armored cars drove into the square at high speed, killing several people. It is claimed that the crowd continued their commitment to non-violence, offering to disperse if they could gather their dead and injured, and if British troops left the square. 

The British troops refused to leave, so the protesters remained with the dead and injured.[5] At that point, the British ordered troops to open fire with machine guns on the unarmed crowd.The Khudai Khidmatgar members willingly faced bullets, responding without violence. Instead, many members repeated 'God is Great'(اللہُ اکبر) and clutched the Qur'an as they went to their death.

The exact number of deaths remains controversial official figures give 20 dead while nationalist sources claimed several hundred were killed, with many more wounded. Two platoons of a respected British Indian Army regiment, the Royal Garhwal Rifles, refused to board buses that were to take them into Peshawar for anti-riot duty. a British civil servant wrote later that "hardly any regiment of the Indian Army won greater glory in the Great War (World War I) than the Garhwal Rifles, and the defection of part of the regiment sent shock waves through India, of apprehension to some, of exultation to others."The NCOs of the two platoons, including one led by Hawaldar Major Chander Singh Garhwal involved were sentenced to terms of up to eight years imprisonment.

23 April #Qissakhwani Bazzar massacre day